Chapter 4
The next day was Saturday, the Saturday before Thanksgiving in fact, and I was looking forward to a long-overdue visit home to see my parents. Normally, we Primes are on duty at HQ for six weeks straight, with a week off for vacation. Since the problems with Shelley's arrest, though, the seven of us decided that we would start limiting our vacations to one or two days at a time. In addition, we had decided it would be best to go out in pairs as an added safety precaution.
My sister Angela would be taking her fourth Dan test -- the test for her fourth-degree black belt -- in Tae Kwon Do on Saturday, which is one reason I was coming home. Padma does Tae Kwon Do as well -- she's a second Dan -- but she had never seen any test higher than second degree, and she was curious to see how it worked. So that was why she and I found ourselves, overnight bags in hand, in a stand of trees beside a corn field in Ohio early on Saturday morning.
"I'm a little nervous to meet your family," Padma confessed to me as we began walking down a gravel road towards my parents' house. "My English is all right, isn't it? I always worry that people who don't know me will not be able to understand what I say."
"Your English is fine," I assured her. "And remember, my parents immigrated from China; if anyone understands the difficulties of trying to communicate in an unfamiliar language, they do. The only thing you have to worry about is that my mother will probably think we're involved."
"Involved?" She frowned for a moment, but then her face cleared. "Oh, you mean, as in dating?"
"Yeah, especially if you keep holding my hand like that."
She looked down to where she was squeezing my fingers so tightly they were turning white. "Sorry, it's a nervous habit. Are you sure I will be welcome? I do not want to impose myself on your family."
"Don't worry about it. It's a big old farmhouse; they've got lots of room. Besides, I told my mom I would be bringing someone with me, and she said it would be fine."
My mother answered the door when we arrived. "Trevor!" she said. "It's good to see you!" Her eyes widened as she caught sight of Padma. "Oh! I didn't realize that your guest would be so . . . presentable."
I grinned. For some reason, my mother thinks "presentable" is a more polite word than "pretty", and Padma certainly was that, with glossy black hair that fell past her shoulderblades, a slim athletic figure that nevertheless curved in all the right places, and a thousand-watt smile that the Indian-darkness of her skin made seem extra brilliant.
I made the introductions in English. Normally in our house, we spoke the mother tongue, namely Mandarin Chinese, as much as possible. We also spoke Cantonese when my Aunt Min was visiting, and whenever Grandmaster Park came over for dinner, we spoke Korean. It was a little weird growing up quadri-lingual like that, but it has served me in good stead in the years since.
"So, Trevor," my mother said, taking our arms and leading us inside, "allow me to exercise a mother's prerogative to be nosy. Is Padma your girlfriend?"
I looked over at Padma. As I said, she's a pretty gal, but beyond that, I genuinely liked her. I had been her mentor when she first joined the Primes, we still trained together quite a lot, and we had become good friends. In fact, I'd say she was probably my best friend at HQ. Under different circumstances, I would have been happy to introduce her as my girlfriend.
Such was not the case, however. She had something going on with Nicolai; I still hadn't figured out quite what it was, but I knew he would not appreciate a rival. And of course I had my own issues with Lily to work out. So I shook my head and said, "Not exactly, Mom. We're just close friends, that's all."
"Ah," my mother said, nodding slowly and looking wise. I had a feeling I didn't want to know what that "ah" meant.
My sister Angela was sitting at the kitchen table, munching a toasted bagel slathered with grape jelly. She jumped up when she saw me and managed to give me a big hug while not getting any of the jelly in my hair. Then she noticed Padma and stopped short. "Excuse me," she said, staring at her with frank curiosity, "but have we met before?"
Padma smiled. "Possibly. When was the last time you were in India?"
"Um, never. But you're a friend of my brother's, right? You . . . work with him?" she asked meaningfully.
Padma's smile broadened. "I do indeed."
Angie frowned in thought for a moment and then said, "My, uh, my favorite color is pink. What's yours?"
I chuckled to myself at Angie's subtle attempt to pump Padma for information. My baby sister knows that I'm a Prime, and she has even joined us on a couple of missions as Junior Prime Pink. Until recently, Wizzit had insisted that I be the only Prime she knew by sight. He decided to change that not too long ago, though, and asked Mike and me to invite Angie to HQ sometime to meet us all face to face.
Unfortunately for that plan, my parents don't know I'm a Prime. They think I'm bumming around the world with an international Tae Kwon Do demonstration team, and they disapprove. Understandably, every time I said, "My friends want to meet Angela for dinner," they replied, "Bring them over to the house, because we'd like to meet them, too." That was another reason I had come for a visit today, to straighten out that particular stalemate.
Regardless, Padma evidently decided to play along with Angie's little game. "If I had to choose a color that would define me," she said, "I suppose it would be indigo."
My mother had been following this whole exchange uncomprehendingly. Now she evidently decided it was time to jump back into the conversation. "Indigo!" she exclaimed. "What a lovely color! I'm very fond of indigo myself."
Angela frowned. "But I thought --"
My mother cut her off. "Angela," she said, "hadn't you better go upstairs to get dressed? You don't want to be late for your test."
My sister looked down at herself. She was wearing her uniform pants -- white with a black stripe down the leg -- and a camisole. "I'm already dressed, Mom. I just have to put on my jacket, which is hanging by the door, and grab my belt, which is on the back of the couch."
"Your hair needs brushing, dear, and I'm sure your teeth do as well."
Angie turned toward me and rolled her eyes. "Yes, mother."
You want to know something funny? I have heard the two of them have that exact same conversation, complete with eye-rolling, in four different languages. Anyway, I ran upstairs as well to put my own uniform on. Angie cornered me as I came out of my room. "Trevor," she hissed, "I thought you were Prime Indigo!"
"I was," I replied, "but now I'm Prime Blue."
"Oh. So is Padma really Prime Indigo?"
"Uh huh. And if you say it just a little louder, I bet Mom and Dad would be able to hear."
She grimaced. "Sorry. So why is she here?"
I gave her my most serene, most infuriating smile. "We'll talk about it after testing."